Last year, as I have endlessly gone on and on about, Laura spent three months in Malaysia for Dell Computer. I followed, on Dell's dime, for a three-week vacation that simply cannot be described in words.
This is a flower, possibly some kind of bromeliad or orchid, in the Singapore Bird Park.
This is representative of what I saw in the Singapore Float Parade during Chinese New Year celebrations.
This is a view of the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Hindu temple in Singapore. Who are all those people?
These are some lanterns and some Buddhas in the Kek Lok Si Buddhist Temple, the "temple of 10,000 Buddhas" in Penang, Malaysia.
This is Cassandra, Ranny and Ai Ling. These young Malaysian Judokas giggled a lot, but they all knew their Judo.
As the sun began to set on my Asian adventure, so the sun sets over the Indian Ocean, somewhere between Langkawi Island and Penang, Malaysia. That is probably a tourist dive boat floating in the distance, or maybe a fishing boat.
(Click to enlarge the pictures.)
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The float's headdress is mirrored by the women in the foreground.
The all benefit from clicking on them and looking closer. The Hindu temple's corner is occupied by a little nekkid fellow. I wouldn't have known that if I wasn't looking closely;) The three young girls are darling. They look like young people everywhere--pretty, with big smiles. I love them!
Thank you for joining in on the celebration! I'll bet this is the largest collection of fascinating, beautiful, enlightening, and inspiring photos ever seen on Open Salon.
I've added your name to the bottom of my Susan post. I think I caught most of them so far. Let me know if I've missed someone.
Susan--I don't know the iconography of the Hindus. I thought it must be the Hindu pantheon, but one of my Indian friends at work told me those people don't all represent gods. The lanterns and all those Buddhas (10,000 of them--count 'em) are inside one of the pagodas of Kek Lok Si, a Buddhist temple. One of the truly wonderful things about both the Hindu and Buddhist temples was that they were all pretty tourist friendly, even while Hindu and Buddhist worshippers were there to worship.
Whenever we vacation I always tease my wife that I will be rationing number of the historic churches we visit. But on this trip I couldn't get enough of the temples. Penang's spectacular Temple of the Reclining Buddha and the unbelievable-unless-you've-seen-it Snake Temple (full of poisonous vipers, all over the floor and climbing the walls) are not pictured.
Artsfish tells me Cambodia is safe, but she qualified it in such a way that I'm not yet persuaded.
Gary, I believe I could live in Singapore, at least as a second home. Despite the regime, it was special.
By air. I flew in from Bangkok. There's a charming airport that looks a bit like something out of an Indiana Jones movie.
I wish y'all could see either one of those temples. We visited Kek Lok Si at night, during Chinese New Year, with some Dell friends. Imagine, if you can, going to the National Cathedral, in D.C., and seeing the entire structure lit up with 10 million Christmas lights. That would be the American equivalent, even though it isn't equivalent. I'll try to post some more pics of Kek Lok Si one day soon.
Sandra, you're really an international woman of mystery. And you ran 50 miles yesterday? One day in my life I ran about half that far. The rest of the time, not so much. You're amazing!
Magpie Mae, you liked sunset over the Indian Ocean. I'm glad. I stood outside on the deck of that ferry boat for over an hour waiting for that shot, and then I looked away and nearly missed it.
My own favorite picture is the one of the Judo girls. I know this one is sort of in the "which one doesn't belong" category, but I love impromptu portraiture; it's what I do. I didn't work out with any of them; they gave me another partner, some hairy-legged guy, darn the luck. But I watched them work out and just fell in love with all three. They were so young and full of laughter. The one on the right, Ai Ling, had something wrong with her left eye. Looking at her eye made me sad, but it also gave me to imagine that she's a fighter, someone who's not going to be denied in life--because she would look straight at me, even with the bum eye, and she wasn't afraid for the camera to see her as she is. The fellow who invited me to work out with his club, Justin, told me later that he used me as a motivational tool with his young people: "See, if even an old man like that dumbass American guy can do Judo, so can you. Now get to work!" Or some such.